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College General Education Requirements

By Amy Cocke

College campus building.

Most college students will be expected to fulfill general education requirements for their college degrees. General education requirements, usually referred to as gen ed requirements, specify the disciplines outside of the student's major and the number of credit hours students should complete before graduation. General education requirements often aren't the same for every student in the school; departments will have their own set of requirements for the students in their majors.

Writing Requirement

Many colleges do require a certain amount of credit hours in classes that include writing assignments in the graded material for all students in the school, no matter the major. This is called the writing requirement.

Freshman Class

Freshman classes or seminars have been added to the curriculum of many colleges. Not all colleges that offer the classes require them, however.

Quantitative Reasoning

Another requirement may be quantitative reasoning, which is usually mathematics. Logic, a type of philosophy class, or statistics are other classes that may be offered as options for certain majors.

Natural Sciences

Sometimes college departments will specify the science courses and laboratories you are required to take, while others will only state that you need to take a certain number of credit hours.

Social Sciences

Social science requirements generally operate the same as natural science requirements. Most do not have laboratory credits, though.

Humanities

Humanities requirements can consist of courses such as literature, foreign languages or fine arts. These are often a large part of your general education courses.